A primary teacher and their sporadic views on technology in education, the world and life in general.

44 entries from March 2007

I was watching a news item about cricket - in particular the investigation into the murder of the Pakistan coach - and the possibility that his death might have had something to do with illegal gambling in Pakistan.The interesting part of the report was how the future generation of national cricketers are being trained. Not only are they learning to play the game well, but they are also being taught "ethics" to avoid the potential of falling foul of the criminal underworld who are out to corrupt them.

What a great idea - children being taught the correct ethics to make good future adults.

So over the past two decades we've become steadily more used to banking the digital way. From the introduction of the first "hole in the wall" ATM, through to being paid automatically into the bank rather than the Friday brown pay packet, and then debit cards and 'cashback' (I will always remember the disbelief of my 90 year old great gran when we went shopping, gave the checkout worker a piece of plastic, and were given money back as well as the shopping).But, technology always has a drawback and today has proved just what can happen.

First, take the case of TKMaxx in the UK, and its parent company TJX in the US who have had their computers hacked, and the card details of 45.7 million payments compromised.

Secondly, up to 400,000 people will not be paid as expected on Friday as a result of a problem with the Bacs system, an electronic means to process
financial transactions, has been running slowly and so not all payments
have been sent out in time.

So, thanks to technology, there's a chance you've either not been paid yet, or what you have been paid might have been stolen from you!!

So, this was the last day with my class before I move schools, as tomorrow is an Inset day.Assembly this morning was the usual leaving thing for both of us - as two teachers leave at the end of this term - with each class having created a suitable class card / individual cards suited to the teacher. One set of cards were themed around shoes / handbags and glitter whilst the others had the theme of dragons (wonder why that is?) Fortunately, embarrassment was saved with the correct cards going to the correct teachers!Lunchtime saw the gathering of all staff in the staffroom - you know something is going to happen when ALL staff appear together, and gifts and cards were given, with much appreciation.Then, later in the afternoon both of us were called into a room downstairs where I was met by parents and a wonderful spread of food followed by cards and gifts from the parents. A lovely touch.The final part of the day consisted of the children in class handing over their cards before heading home to begin their holiday.I will miss these children, and the staff immensely. It has been this school that rekindled my joy of teaching, as my previous appointment almost succeeded in driving me out of education completely. Without the support and enjoyment that the school oozed, I'd have quit teaching for good. And so I thank Douglas Primary School, and wish it well for the remaining four terms that it is open before it closes for ever due to the short sighted vision of the city council. I will remember my time there fondly.

Wallace and Gromit, described by the Patent Office as
"Britain's foremost inventors", are spearheading the Cracking Ideas
initiative, which will invite youngsters to come up with their own
inventions.The Patent Office project for primary schools also
includes a competition for Yr5 pupils - with schools being invited to send in their
best inventions - with the winner to be turned into a model by the
Aardman studios.There is a serious side to the project, says the Patent Office's Miles Rees.

There has been much talk about the struggle to get
youngsters interested in science - and he hopes that this will help
young children to think creatively about innovation.

It will also show them the need to protect ideas - and
he says there have been cases where young people have come up with
brainwaves, which have then be swept up by commercial operators. Any
decent ideas will be patented, he says.

You can register your school now, and the teaching resources will be put online June 4th.

Be aware that the video trailer contains lots of information, but you'll need to set aside a good 10 minutes to watch through it.

Two items that have hit the news today regarding travel to and from school.

Firstly, The government is putting £10m into children's cycling,
which will pay for around half of all 10-year-olds to take the
Bikeability course. (Bikeability being the new trendy word for cycling proficiency!) Read information here

Secondly, free bus travel to secondary schools is to be extended. From 2008, an estimated 135,000 children on free school
meals will be offered free transport to one of three nearest secondary
schools within a two to six mile radius, the Department for Education
and Skills says. The idea of this is to stop transport costs pricing low income homes out of popular schools. Information on this here

Over on Bectan Sands I've been experimenting with the information in the right hand information bar. I've found a way to select a random article from a section, display the title, and provide the link to get straight to it. As a result there is a random selection from the village history, village news, village stories, village locals and village poem sections.The selection changes everytime you load a new page, or else refresh the current page.

What is the education system coming to, when instead of spending funds on resources for pupils, or improvements to buildings, schools are now offering 5 figure "golden hellos" to recruit headteachers.I know that it's problematic finding future Headteachers - I would personally never opt for that role after seeing what it did to my dad - but I didn't think it was such a problem that these incentives were required. As a leader of one teaching union has said;

...a £40,000
inducement reportedly offered by Fortismere school in Muswell Hill was
the highest golden hello he had heard of thus far...

£40,000 buys a hell of a lot of resources, or pays for a shed load of building improvements.